10:12 Colin Challen (Morley and Rothwell) (Lab)

My hon. Friend the Member for Elmet has already referred to the green economy; I am being totally non-partisan in my approach to that matter, because the motion that most attracts my attention has been put forward by a member from a different, minority party on the council, and it calls for it to accelerate the rate at which the city cuts its carbon dioxide emissions. Leeds as a whole now emits about 6 million tonnes of carbon a year, and the motion calls for a 10 per cent. annual cut in that. That would be an enormous stimulus to the economy of Leeds. I hope we shall receive a letter from Leeds city council telling us that that is the policy approach we should adopt.

I agree. We tend to think of climate change in terms of renewable energy, but there are many other potential solutions and other things that can improve our energy efficiency. The university of Leeds is one of the country’s leading research and development universities, and earns £113 million a year in research grants. Sadly, however, because of the cuts agenda that we seem to be facing, it could lose, even on the existing estimate of proposed cuts, up to 8 per cent. of its work force—nearly 700 jobs. That will be a big blow to the university’s prestige and its ability to deliver economic drivers. The university has a marvellous record of setting up new entrepreneurial, inventive businesses that are right up to speed with the new technologies. I hope we can look again at the range of proposed cuts and say that we do not need them. What we need is investment, because it will produce longer-term growth and higher tax revenues. That, and not cutting the public sector, is the way to get out of recession.

I referred in an intervention to the role of the RDA. It does a good job, but could do a lot better. It fully accepts the green agenda, and tried hard to ensure that Yorkshire would benefit from the carbon capture and storage competition. I think that work will continue and there will be work on CCS in Yorkshire. The whole point about Leeds as a city region, and the green economy, is that the Aire valley, which is also known as “power alley”, stretching into Selby, produces about 25 per cent. of the UK’s electricity generation: the green economy is an enormous opportunity and an enormous threat to the area. If we are to lose technologies because of European directives on emissions, and because manufacturing jobs go to Germany and Denmark, we could lose jobs in the old fossil fuel economy and not get the new jobs in the green economy. I urge the Minister to take that seriously. It is a big opportunity and I hope that we can review RDA strategies to ensure that they fully deliver for the area.

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